Coillte company to launch ultra-light fibreboard onto European market

TIMBER company Medite has developed an ultra-light medium density fibreboard (MDF) wood product which is set to be launched onto the European market.

Medite, a member of the national forestry group, Coillte, has just completed six months of research into its new MDF Ultralite product, after a €15 million investment by Coillte at its plant in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.

Medite is already a respected brand in Europe’s panel board marketplace. Medite Ultralite now brings the company’s portfolio of export products to eight, all certified to EU standards. Medite and its Waterford partner, SmartPly, employ over 320 people.

Coillte Panel Products MD Gerard Britchfield, said: “Coillte Panel Products exports approx 90% of the Medite MDF and SmartPly OSB it produces at its Clonmel and Waterford plants and has seen some improvement in the UK and European markets for its products in the current year. The Coillte group as a whole is responsible for the export of approx 100 truck loads a day of material, including timber products from its saw mill customers, and plays a key role in developing new markets for sustainable Irish timber products.”

Medite Ultralite maintains the surface smoothness and stability of normal MDF. It can be painted to achieve high quality surface finishes and provide a uniform substrate for overlaying.

Major benefits include easier handling, reduced tool wear, and it can be selectively used in applications where lighter weight features are appreciated, such as exhibitions stands or temporary exhibition backdrops, television, film studio and theatre stage sets, shopfitting, light-weight and event furniture, components for caravans and mobile homes, wrapped mouldings, picture frames, aircraft and shipbuilding industries, lightweight ceilings and indoor wall coverings.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food with responsibility for Forestry, Sean Connick said: “The Medite MDF and SmartPly OSB brands are superb examples of indigenous wood products that compete successfully in a global market by adding value to one of Ireland’s renewable natural resources – its forests.”